Biden: Hillary is front-runner, but nomination is a `lifetime’ away

Biden: Hillary is front-runner, but nomination is a `lifetime’ awayBy The Associated PressWASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton is the favorite right now for the Democratic nomination for president, but the party is a “lifetime” away from making its 2008 choice, one of her White House rivals said Sunday.“I think she’s incredibly formidable and has got to be the front-runner and the odds-on pick right now. But this is a marathon. There’s a long way to go,” said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. The former first lady and current New York senator joined the race on Saturday, hoping to become the first female president.A crowded field of candidates is led by Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson jumped in on Sunday.Biden, however, said he did not look at the race as Clinton’s to lose.“Look, listen, we’re a lifetime away. Hillary Clinton is going to have to make her best case. And there’s a lot of us out there that are known but in a sense not known, and we’re going to make our best case. And I don’t think Hillary’s best case versus mine or Barack’s or anybody else’s necessarily trumps us,” said Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Clinton made her announcement on a video posted Saturday on her Web site. Her first public appearance since entering the race was to be at a health event planned for Sunday afternoon in New York City.Clinton’s controversial tenure as first lady left her a deeply polarizing figure among voters, leading many Democrats to doubt her viability in a general election.“I don’t think that’s true,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. “I think that we have a lot of candidates there that are able to not only win the nomination but also win the election.”Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said “there’s a Democratic tide that is running in this country for good reasons. I think six years of the Bush administration have given people a lot of reasons to look for Democratic alternatives.”It is up to Democrats now, he said, “to really show what those alternatives are in the next two years in Congress, now controlled by Democrats. And I’m very confident that the strongest candidate will emerge, but we don’t know who that Democrat is yet.”Biden and Levin appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070122/NEWS01/70122008